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Grant Gordon, the director general of the Institute for Family Businesses, has been revealed as the final panelist at this Friday’s (21 October) Insider Family Business Breakfast at Malmaison in Birmingham, and there is still time to book your place.

Gordon joins Dani Saveker, former owner of Savekers; Paul Norbury, partner and regional private business leader at PwC; Graham Muth, partner at Cobbetts; and Richard Love, managing director of Berwick Partners.

UK family businesses are showing signs of being upbeat about the future, with 64 per cent saying they aim to expand.

However, a third of family businesses have reduced capital expenditure since 2007 – worryingly more so than their global counterparts – and cut back on their plans for investment. But generally they feel they’ve coped well and are in a good position to compete and capitalise on new opportunities.

In this Question Time-style event we discuss the main challenges facing family business. We'll examine the opportunities being a family business presents, the hurdles they face, and ask where the next growth opportunities are to be found.

Two-thirds of family businesses interviewed in a recent survey were convinced that being part of a family business has helped them through the economic slump.

They see their collective purpose and sense of continuity and sustainability as greater than in other companies. When asked, family businesses named their top three external challenges as finance which has moved the focus from competitors to the market place. Seventy per cent mentioned market conditions (compared with 46 per cent in 2007) and 42 per cent said they were concerned about legislation and regulation (compared with 61 per cent in 2007).

Family businesses are well placed to compete but need to challenge themselves to make sure they stay ahead of their competitors, say the specialists.

A third of UK family businesses believe their core market will worsen over the next year, meaning they'll need to grow market share rather than expand in their market. Finding and recruiting talented people was named by 46 per cent of family businesses as one of their top three internal issues, which suggests many of them are looking ahead to how they’ll compete and expand in the future.

Competitive salaries are the most important retention tools for 88 per cent of family businesses, while 27 per cent said they were using deferred bonus schemes. And they believe this incentive plan works – 83 per cent say that their plans have a positive effect on senior management by encouraging loyalty.

The tough economic climate may be pushing more family-owned businesses to decide who their successors will be.

In the same survey, two thirds of companies with a succession plan said they were expecting the business to be passed to other family members and 52 per cent had already chosen their successor.

This represents a marked increase from our previous survey and could perhaps be a reaction to the uncertainty of the last two years. One of the biggest risks facing any family-owned business is the transition from one generation to the next.

We'll discuss how Midlands companies can harness these opportunities and establish whether the government is doing enough to help family businesses spearhead the recovery.

Our events are regularly over-subscribed therefore please register your interest as soon as possible. Please click here to register your interest.

If you need any more information, please contact Kate Marshall or call 0161 907 9754.